Yeah, I mean the guy was working 10+ PPVs a year during the Attitude Era, including multiple high profile WrestleMania matches, so I'm skeptical on the "best money deal he ever had" claim he's saying.

Like I said, I don't believe that's the case, but if the Khan's really are out-spending what Vince was giving top guys in the Attitude Era, then they're already overpaying for talent at WCW levels, and will ultimately suffer the same fate if that's true.

It could be the best *guaranteed* deal he's ever gotten -- excluding any sort of extra payoffs he's made from big matches.

I think people are trying to judge this far, far too quickly. AEW is open for their talent to compete elsewhere - Jericho gets to compete in NJPW while Joey Janela can book himself on some Indies - and that's a really, really good thing for the business as a whole.

I don't think they're going to throw $$$ at older talent that still can't go.

It could be the best *guaranteed* deal he's ever gotten -- excluding any sort of extra payoffs he's made from big matches.

I think people are trying to judge this far, far too quickly. AEW is open for their talent to compete elsewhere - Jericho gets to compete in NJPW while Joey Janela can book himself on some Indies - and that's a really, really good thing for the business as a whole.

I don't think they're going to throw $$$ at older talent that still can't go.

Jericho will be in his 50s or close to it since this is a 3 year deal. Goldberg also rumored who is in his 50s. So I mean that's what they are rumored to do this far. I dont think its judging it's just literally what is being reported.

The bigger problem is, where is the incoming revenue going to come from? If they go a traditional PPV route, you have NJPW and WWE giving you their entire library for ten bucks a month, so are people in large numbers going to pay $20+ anymore for a single wrestling PPV? They don't have an existing tape library, so they can't go the NJPWWorld or WWE Network route either.

So where is the revenue going to be generated from to pay all of these guys guaranteed six figures? Yeah, the Khans can afford to lose money at the start, but history has clearly shown that no matter how deep a money mark's pockets are, if they aren't turning a profit, they all eventually cut their losses and pull out. Time will tell.

Honestly I think WWE has a practical monopoly on pro Wrestling. Since its inception WWE has been on top every year except like 2 of them. And since its inception only one single promotion (ie WCW) has ever been able to truly compete with WWE. I don't see this being much different than ROH, TNA, etc.

The bigger problem is, where is the incoming revenue going to come from? If they go a traditional PPV route, you have NJPW and WWE giving you their entire library for ten bucks a month, so are people in large numbers going to pay $20+ anymore for a single wrestling PPV? They don't have an existing tape library, so they can't go the NJPWWorld or WWE Network route either.

So where is the revenue going to be generated from to pay all of these guys guaranteed six figures? Yeah, the Khans can afford to lose money at the start, but history has clearly shown that no matter how deep a money mark's pockets are, if they aren't turning a profit, they all eventually cut their losses and pull out. Time will tell.

This is all correct. The traditional wrestling business really doesn't exist anymore. WWE is a TV company masquerading as a wrestling company since it makes the bulk of its money on TV ad revenue. WWE Network and live events are gravy. You can't afford to pay wrestlers 6 figures and expect to make money on live events. The scale just isn't there. PPV is dead across the board, so there's no money in that either. There's really only a TV deal, and that's a huge gamble since wrestling really isn't popular enough in general to draw TV numbers.

Has anybody in the modern era of US wrestling, other than WWE, EVER gotten a big money TV rights deal from a network? WCW was owned by the same corporate group that owned the network, and I don't think TNA and ECW were getting huge revenue off of their TV deals, and they were already established companies by that point.

The Khans might have inside relationships with TV people to get them *a* TV deal, but I can't see many desirable networks bidding against each other to actually pay an untested wrestling company a huge TV rights package. So again, it comes down to the question of where the revenue is going to come from to cover all of these costs the Khans are spending.

As has been previously reported, Cody Rhodes, The Young Bucks and Hangman Page turned down WWE offers in order to be a part of the new All Elite Wrestling promotion, headed by Jacksonville Jaguars co-owner Tony Khan.

Triple H reportedly had worked hard and offered unique deals in hopes of signing all four, according to Dave Meltzer in the latest edition of The Wrestling Observer Newsletter. According to Meltzer, Page's deal was to work NXT for main roster money. Page was to have been pushed as one the top stars on the brand.

WWE also had a unique three-year deal for the Bucks, which would have been for the same amount of money as A.J. Styles. The WWE deal included having their Being The Elite show airing weekly on the WWE Network. It also had a unique six-month window that would have allowed them out of their contracts if they weren't happy.

Opt out is interesting but, honestly, WWE could push them to the moon for those first 6 month then pull their typical bullshit with them in years two and three and they'd be stuck there.

But if that is accurate, they're crazy to have NOT taken the deal. Think about it: You sign the deal, get pushed to the moon for six months, THEN you opt-out and do exactly what they're doing now...except you're coming off of six months of a national TV push by WWE to promote them.

They would have basically had a six month commercial for their upcoming new promotion airing every Monday night - without WWE knowing at the time that it would end up being a six month commercial for their new promotion, obviously.

Opt out is interesting but, honestly, WWE could push them to the moon for those first 6 month then pull their typical bullshit with them in years two and three and they'd be stuck there.

But if that is accurate, they're crazy to have NOT taken the deal. Think about it: You sign the deal, get pushed to the moon for six months, THEN you opt-out and do exactly what they're doing now...except you're coming off of six months of a national TV push by WWE to promote them.

They would have basically had a six month commercial for their upcoming new promotion airing every Monday night - without WWE knowing at the time that it would end up being a six month commercial for their new promotion, obviously.

Yeah, that's a solid point but a lot can happen in 6 months. All of this is fascinating